There has been a continuing need for improved bone graft materials. Although autograft, the current “gold standard”, has the ideal properties and radiopacity, the use of autogenous bone exposes the patient to a second surgery, pain, and morbidity at the donor site. Allograft devices, which are processed from donor bone, also carry the risk of disease transmission. The devices are restricted in terms of variations on shape and size and have sub-optimal strength properties that decrease after implantation. The quality of the allograft devices varies because the devices are natural. Also, since companies that provide allograft implants obtain their supply from donor tissue banks, there tend to be limitations on supply. In recent years, synthetic materials have become a viable alternative to autograft and allograft devices. One such synthetic material is Vitoss® Scaffold Synthetic Cancellous Bone Void Filler (Orthovita, Inc., Malvern, Pa., assignee of the present application). Synthetic graft materials, like autograft and allograft, serve as osteoconductive scaffolds that promote the ingrowth of bone. As bone growth is promoted and increases, the graft material resorbs and is eventually replaced with new bone.
Many synthetic bone grafts include materials that closely mimic mammalian bone, such as compositions containing calcium phosphates. Exemplary calcium phosphate compositions contain type-B carbonated hydroxyapatite [Ca5(PO4)3x(CO3)x(OH)], which is the principal mineral phase found in the mammalian body. The ultimate composition, crystal size, morphology, and structure of the body portions formed from the hydroxyapatite are determined by variations in the protein and organic content. Calcium phosphate ceramics have been fabricated and implanted in mammals in various forms including, but not limited to, shaped bodies and cements. Different stoichiometric compositions such as hydroxyapatite (HAp), tricalcium phosphate (TCP), tetracalcium phosphate (TTCP), and other calcium phosphate salts and minerals, have all been employed to match the adaptability, biocompatibility, structure, and strength of natural bone. The role of pore size and porosity in promoting revascularization, healing, and remodeling of bone has been recognized as a critical property for bone grafting materials. The preparation of exemplary porous calcium phosphate materials that closely resemble bone have been disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,383,519 and 6,521,246, incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
There has been a continued need for improved bone graft systems. Although calcium phosphate bone graft materials are widely accepted, many lack the strength, handling, and flexibility necessary to be used in a wide array of clinical applications. Heretofore, calcium phosphate bone graft substitutes have been used in predominantly non-load-bearing applications as simple bone void fillers and the like. For more clinically challenging applications that require the graft material to take on load, bone reconstruction systems that pair a bone graft material to traditional rigid fixation systems are used. For instance, MacroPore OS™ Reconstruction System is intended to reinforce and maintain the relative position of weak bony tissue such as bone graft substitutes or bone fragments from comminuted fractures. The system is a resorbable graft containment system composed of various sized porous sheets and sleeves, non-porous sheets and sleeves, and associated fixation screws and tacks made from polylactic acid (PLA). However, the sheets are limited in that they can only be shaped for the body when heated.
The Synthes SynMesh™ consists of flat, round, and oval shaped cylinders customized to fit the geometry of a patient's anatomical defect. The intended use is for reinforcement of weak bony tissue and is made of commercially pure titanium. Although this mesh may be load-bearing, it is not made entirely of resorbable materials that are flexible.
A number of different glasses, glass-ceramics, and crystalline phase materials have been used, either alone or in combination with acrylic polymerizable species, and other families of polymers, for restorative purposes. These include hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite, oxyapatite, Wollastonite, anorthite, calcium fluoride, agrellite, devitrite, canasite, phlogopite, monetite, brushite, octocalcium phosphate, Whitlockite, tetracalcium phosphate, cordierite, and Berlinite. Representative patents describing such uses include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,981,736, 4,652,534, 4,643,982, 4,775,646, 5,236,458, 2,920,971, 5,336,642, and 2,920,971. Additional references include Japanese Patent No. 87-010939 and German Patent OS 2,208,236. Other references may be found in W. F. Brown, “Solubilities of Phosphate & Other Sparingly Soluble Compounds,” Environmental Phosphorous Handbook, Ch. 10 (1973). All of the foregoing are incorporated herein by reference to provide disclosure, inter alia, of prior restorative materials and methods and compositions which may be included in the compositions and methods of the invention, as well as methods which may be employed as part of or ancillary to the invention.
There is a need for synthetic, resorbable bone grafts with improved handling, which are flexible and not brittle, and are compression resistant. There is also a need for flexible, compression-resistant bone grafts that are osteostimulative, osteoconductive, and osteoinductive.
There is also a need for resorbable bone grafts that are bioactive or osteoactive by nature of their ability to expediently form bone bonding.
There is a further need for resorbable bone grafts that are highly porous and have interconnected macro-, meso-, and microporosity for promoting capillary action of fluids, allowing recruitment of cells for bone formation, and permitting angiogenesis. There is also a need for bone grafts with fluid wicking and retention properties capable of delivering cells and molecules to the body
There is a need for bioactive flowable or moldable, shapeable graft materials that can occupy voids of varying shapes for restoring defects in bone.
There is also a need for injectable, resorbable bone graft materials with improved handling properties.